


Nothing like the present

by PrinceofBadassery



Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Accidental use of stunning spell, Alternate Universe - Wizards, Animagus!Tony, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Getting Together, Happy Ending, M/M, Secrets, and there's a lot of hugging
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-04-29
Packaged: 2020-02-08 20:29:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18630712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrinceofBadassery/pseuds/PrinceofBadassery
Summary: Done for the ITAB prompt:"Wizarding World AU please? Famous tattoo artist Bucky is doing his best to keep his secrets safe. The first being he is madly in love with Tony the baker in the little steampunk bakery across the street, who sings beautifully when he thinks no one is listening. The second being he's a wizard. Who may sometimes do magical tattoos for the magicking community. Little does Bucky know is that Tony is also a wizard who happens to be a very startling animagi. Please and thank you? "





	1. Chapter 1

The harbingers of spring were already coming to the small town of Rosendale in upstate New York but the nights in early March were still icy cold and Tony felt like his paws were about to turn into ice clumps as he traversed the street and hopped gracefully on top of a garbage container. It was time's likes these that he wished his animagus would have taken a more cold-resistant form, something with thicker fur under his paws to protect his sensitive toe beans. ‘Toe beans’, Tony snorted - a weird sound when done as a cat - muggles and their memes. He didn’t know where that thought had come from and he pushed it aside, cold paws or not, he was on a mission.

Bucky Barnes’ birthday was on the 10th and Tony needed a present, a good one, a great one, a spectacular one even.

And he only had 7 days left.

Bucky was Tony’s neighbor who owned the small but popular tattoo parlor across the street from Tony’s bakery. Tall, dark, broody turning into shy once you got to know him and incredibly handsome with long brown hair and silvery eyes Tony could get lost in. Scratch that, had gotten lost in. Tony was utterly in love with his sweet and caring neighbor, had been since he had first heard Bucky laugh and those silver eyes had lit up with mirth. Unfortunately, it was a sound that was rarely heard in the town of Rosendale and Tony wanted to change that.

Unfortunate was also that fact that Bucky was a muggle and so Tony couldn’t just invite him into his bakery and put on a magic show, dish up some of Bucky’s favorite baked sweets for him on his birthday and make it a grand event with a cake that baked itself as the main course. He had to find a muggle present.

Maybe it was just the way Tony’s brain worked or maybe Bucky wasn’t just shy but also secretive but even though they’ve known each other for months now and talked almost daily, he couldn’t remember Bucky mentioning one thing that he liked, no hobbies, no TV shows, books, sports, all these muggle things that Tony knew off (and he knew a lot, partially due to the fact that he lived as the only wizard alone in a muggle town and you tended to stick out like a sore thumb if you didn’t know what the Super Bowl or an iPhone was and partially due to, well, being Tony and being naturally curious about absolutely everything).

So here Tony was, trying to figure out what hobbies Bucky had by sneaking into his house in his animagus form because who gets mad at a kitty walking around your house, right? It’s what cats do after all.

He spotted a small basement window that was maybe a foot tall and not much wider, certainly not big enough to fit an adult human through, but cat Tony would certainly fit and as luck would have it, the window was slightly ajar.  
Eager to get out of the cold and into the house Tony wasted no time to stick his head through the gap and wriggling the rest of his body after it, thanking evolution for the lack of collarbones. Gravity seemed to work differently for cats as well because he landed lightly on his feet on some dusty surface but that’s where his luck ended.

A subconscious flick of a tail and something tumbled to the ground producing a deafening crash and not a moment later the room was suddenly flooded with light and Bucky was standing in front of him.

Pointing a wand at him.  
——  
Bucky had just finished his talk with Steve at the fireplace, one of the reasons he had never wanted a fireplace when moving to Rosendale in the first place. The thought of Steve or any of his other wizard friends trying to take the bus or -god forbid- an Uber to his place had convinced him, however. Anything to keep his friends away from the general Muggle population, or else he’d had to move again, and he didn’t want that, not after he had finally managed to settle.  
So Bucky put up with the calls and the occasional visit having a fireplace brought with it and it did have a few advantages. If he really needed to go to a wizarding shop he could do so easily and the few magical customers that wanted a tattoo from him had it easier as well.

Now he was getting ready for bed, massaging his left shoulder before throwing back the covers. Talking to Steve was exhausting, not as much physically - though sitting on the ground in front of the fireplace was getting to him too - it was the mental exertion that drained Bucky’s energy. Steve rarely showed interest in Bucky’s day to day life, his work or the friends he’s made in town, or his recent fame on Instagram. (”Instagram? Is that one of these weird metric measurements those Europeans use?” Steve had asked him when he had mentioned it, but what could you expect of a guy who thought muggles were only able to produce smartphones because they had imprisoned a wizard or witch somewhere.) It’s always the past for Steve, stories from before when they had both been Aurors, before Hydra.

Bucky shook his head, trying to clear the thoughts out of his head lest they turn into nightmares again.

When he heard the crash all of that was instantly forgotten as he apparated into the cellar to face the intruder.  
——  
Tony blinked against the harsh lights and almost missed how Bucky put the wand away. It happened so fast that Tony wasn't even sure Bucky had been holding a wand at all. One moment he was moving his right hand like he was about to put his wand in his left sleeve, like lots of wizards and witches do, and the next moment it's gone. Except, Bucky isn't wearing a robe or anything with sleeves for that matter. Bucky was wearing a tank top that was showing of previously unknown tattoos on Bucky's shoulders and revealing the whole expanse of Bucky's muscular arms to Tony.

"It's just a fucking cat, Barnes, get it together." Bucky cursed and pushed his hair back with one hand, visibly shaken. He stood still for a moment, just breathing and staring at the floor, his eyes betraying the internal struggle his mind was fighting. Tony didn't even dare to flick his tail. After a while, he looked up and eyed Tony and then the open window above him.

"You squeezed through that, huh?" Bucky shook his head in amazement. "Were you looking for someplace warm? You don't look like you are made for the cold, you're someone's pet, huh? You're a graceful thing, though, quite adorable."  
Bucky took a step closer and before Tony knew it his cat instincts made him jump off the table and away from Bucky. The rational side of his brain protested once it had realized the mistake. Being petted by Bucky would have been amazing.

"Woah, didn't mean to scare you. Just wanted to open up the window a bit more so you could get back out again if you want to." Bucky didn't come any closer, instead, he rested his chin in one hand and his elbow in his other and put on an adorable thinking face. The one he often wore when Tony went on a rambling streak too fast to follow. That face did things to Tony, plus that pose put Bucky's biceps on display like Tony would a particularly fancy cake in his bakery window.

Tony started to drool.

Literally.

It was a cat thing, nobody could blame him for that, but he did wonder why Bucky didn't wear sleeveless tops more often. It was a delicious sight.  
"You should probably stay indoor anyway in this weather. Don't want you freezing to death somewhere. This your first time outside?" Bucky looked at Tony like he was about to answer him then shrugged. "Probably better you found your way inside then..." He trailed off and looked around the room at the various shelves and cupboards. " I gotta have a box for you around here somewhere. You can hang out with me tonight and then I'll make some calls in the morning, see if anybody's missing you."  
Bucky walked over to an old antique wardrobe and stretched to get one of the boxes off the top, giving Tony a good view of his back. He noticed a fine silver line running across Bucky’s left shoulder that he hadn’t seen when he had been ogling Bucky’s biceps. Some kind of scar he reckoned, it looked unusual though as it appeared to be shimmering as Bucky moved about.

The most striking feature of Bucky’s back, however, wasn’t his muscles, despite being quite impressive, it was a tattoo that stretched over Bucky’s back and right shoulder. It was partially obscured by his tanktop but nevertheless, it was clear what it portrayed.

A white wolf howling at the moon.

Tony was mesmerized. It was so detailed it looked almost real.

If he weren’t in his cat form Tony would feel bad for staring but right now he was just enjoying the sight, memorizing every little detail as Bucky moved about and peered into boxes.

Bucky had never mentioned liking wolfs so it came as a surprise to see him having such a big tattoo of one on his back. It stood in stark contrast to his other tats which were mostly small and kept almost exclusively in black ink, like the scrawly handwriting on the inside of his right wrist that read “Till the end of the line” or the black widow spider dangling on a string on the inside of his elbow. Not to mention the tattoo sleeve that covered his left arm in gears and metal plates, while those also looked realistic and well done it was nothing compared to the wolf on Bucky’s back.

Tony decided to get a better look and sneak a little closer. To not make it too obvious that he was watching Bucky and that he wasn’t quite a normal cat, he padded around the room in a circle. He stuck his head into a few things to add to the illusion (and damn those cat instincts) and suddenly he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being watched.

He glanced back to Bucky but the man had a box in his hand and was staring into it, mumbling something to himself before he closed the box back up and put it back on the wardrobe and took down another one. Bucky really was taking this box things serious but Tony did love a good box when he was a cat so he appreciated the effort.

But if Bucky wasn’t looking at him, why were was the fur on his back standing on edge? Tony was starting to get creeped out and that’s when he noticed it.

It was the wolf.

The wolf was looking at him. The wolf - the wolf tattoo was looking at him. He could have sworn the wolf had been howling at the moon. Tony seriously started to doubt his sanity right about now and wondered if he had drunk any hallucinogenic potions lately that still had an effect on him, but he had sworn off that stuff after he had accidentally turned Rhodey into a platypus while at the Academy and it had taken the headmaster and three high-ranking wizards from the Agency of Magical Mishaps two weeks to figure out how to turn him back. That couldn’t be it.

Except then the wolf tilted his head and regarded him curiously and yeah, the tattoo is actually moving. Of course, it is. It's not the first moving tattoo Tony has ever seen, he was a wizard for fuck's sake, and then it finally clicked in Tony's head.

Bucky had a magical tattoo. Bucky was a wizard.

BUCKY WAS A WIZARD! His mind was screaming at him. It hadn't been his imagination then earlier, Bucky really had had a wand. This was like winning the lottery as the muggles would say and he wasn't even consciously initiating the shift or thinking about any consequences. All he was thinking about was how he didn't have to keep his biggest secret from his best friend and secret crush and then —

"STUPEFY!"

Everything went black.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> and now... the conclusion.

Tony came to the sweet and all too familiar sound of someone singing a healing spell to him. His first thought was of his mother and the countless times she had sung the very same spell for him after his father had drunkenly slapped him against a wall or down the stairs. Except the voice was too deep and his mother was long dead. Rhodey maybe. At the Academy, it had always been Rhodey who had healed him when one of his invented spells or magiGadets (”It’s gonna be a thing, Rhodey!”) backfired on him, but Rhodey had always sounded just a tad bit annoyed and hurried the singing along (not because he wanted to hurt Tony but because they had snuck into something they shouldn’t have and had to make a run for it). Tony had kept a few scars from those injuries which he probably deserved.

He knew this voice, knew the familiar baritone and the slight tang of Brooklyn accent that’s almost hidden if you didn’t know it was there.

“Bucky!” Tony shot up and was immediately pushed back down by a firm hand against his chest, the song stopping with it.

“Stay still and let me fix this, doll, you banged your head pretty hard,” Bucky explained. With the healing spell gone Tony suddenly felt the sharp pain in the back of his head and his vision started to get blurry making Bucky’s face swim in front of his eyes. He nodded weakly and closed his eyes again, letting the healing song wash over him once more.

When Bucky let the healing spell fade away Tony blinked open his eyes, his vision much clearer now and his head pain-free. He still felt a little woozy, an after-effect from the stunning spell Tony was also only too familiar with. Bucky helped him sit up and lean against a shelf, the same one he had banged his head on.

Bucky sat on the floor across from him, pinning him with a look that sent chills down Tony’s spine. Those silver eyes that usually held so much warmth were cold as ice now and when Tony let his gaze wander over the rest of his friend he noticed how tense Bucky was. He was holding his wand in a death grip that turned the knuckles on his hand white.

Neither of them spoke and Tony shifted uncomfortably against the shelf under Bucky’s scrutiny until he couldn’t take it anymore and he just started talking. 

“You always stun first and ask questions later?” Tony asked with a nervous chuckle hoping to break up the tense atmosphere with a little humor. To his relief, the corner of Bucky’s lip twitched a little. “I swear I can explain why I break into people’s houses in the middle of the night, well, your house specifically and it will all make perfect sense. Maybe not so much logically but from a Tony-point-of-view — and you know me, Bucky, — it will.” Maybe it was his imagination but Bucky seemed to relax just the tiniest bit.

Bucky sighed and lifted his wand. Tony tried not to flinch away, Bucky would never hurt him even if this situation was more than eerie and the other man was acting more than a little weird (besides the whole “OMG my best friend is a wizard”- thing).

Tony was unfamiliar with the spell Bucky cast silently but he recognized it as a detection spell when Bucky drew dark lines in the air. It looked like a lopsided “F” when Bucky lowered his wand again and the rune hovered between them.  
“For the sake of my sanity and your continued well-being you should answer truthfully,” Bucky looked almost sad when he spoke again like he had done this before with a not so favorable outcome. Tony gulped. This got dark really fast.

“Are you HYDRA?”

Tony blinked at Bucky in confusion, then eyed the floating rune suspiciously.

“I’m guessing you don’t mean the magical beasts that live in Greece? Because last time I checked I only had one head.”

Bucky shook his head.

Tony had no idea what Bucky was talking about, but to the best of his knowledge, he was not whatever this HYDRA was. If he had to guess he’d say it was some kind of secret organization with the way Bucky was freaking out. He remembered that Bucky told him he was ex-military once, Tony had assumed that had meant the Muggle military. Bucky being a wizard shed a whole new light on that information though and there had to be a reason he lived out here alone pretending to be a muggle without even a magical marking on his house to let other witches and wizards know who he was. Suddenly it all made sense. How secretive Bucky was with information about himself and his past and how paranoid he had seemed at times.

Something clicked in Tony and suddenly he was able to see past his own confusion and fear and see Bucky, see how terrified he was that Tony was with this mysterious HYDRA, see the betrayal and yes, that hurt when he hadn’t done anything, but Tony could also see the hope underneath.

“I’m not HYDRA,” Tony said with confidence and the rune glowed white before a deep voice boomed through the room making Tony jump.

“TRUTH!”

Tony watched fascinated as the rune turned black again and then transformed into two ravens that cawed a few times before flying out of the open window.

“I’m so sorry, Tony. I’m so so sorry.” Bucky’s pleading voice made Tony look back down. The man looked absolutely miserable, completely deflated and hunched over, arms wrapped around himself, wand abandoned beside him on the ground. “Please forgive me. I had to make sure…. had to make sure…”

Bucky continued to mumble about how sorry he was. The complete one-eighty threw Tony for a loop if anyone had to apologize it was him for breaking into Bucky’s house.

Tony slowly reached out, intending to pull the other man into a hug. “No, I’m sorry. I swear I can explain why I’m here - “

He didn’t get to finish his sentence because a moment later he had an armful of Bucky clinging to him.

“I don’t care if you broke in here to rob me, Tony, as long as you’re not them,” Bucky mumbled into the crook of Tony’s neck. Slowly Tony let out a breath and let his arms settle around Bucky, one hand coming to rest on the back of his head. He could feel the cold sweat still present on Bucky’s skin and his hair was damp and greasy, nevertheless, he ran his fingers through the long strands and tried to sooth the other man.

“That bad, huh?”

Bucky made a choking sound. “You have no idea.”

They stayed like that for some time until Tony felt the tension drain out of Bucky.

“Maybe we should go somewhere more comfortable? My legs fell asleep. Or, you know, you go and I’ll leave you alone,” it hurt to say because he desperately wanted Bucky not to kick him out, wanted to hold onto him for so much longer. “I’m sure you want to rest - “, Tony was interrupted by Bucky squeezing him more tightly. “No?”

Bucky shook his head and looked up, his eyes were red-rimmed from crying but they had gained their warmth back.

“Stay, please,” Bucky slowly extracted himself from Tony, but he held onto Tony’s hand. “Let’s go upstairs, I’ll relight the fireplace and we’ll talk a little.”

They ended up not talking very much once they had settled on the couch in front of the fireplace. Bucky had curled against Tony’s side and Tony had wrapped his arm around the other man’s shoulders, holding him close. It wasn’t an uncomfortable silence, the fire was crackling softly as they sat together, thinking about what had transpired.

Bucky was the first one to speak. “So why did you break into my house?”

Tony laughed and hid his face in Bucky’s hair. “It’s so silly now.”

“How come?” Bucky sounded truly curious.

“Your birthday is coming up and I wanted to find a good present for you.”

Bucky chuckled. “So you broke into my house? Did you want to steal something I already own and then gift it to me?”

“God, no, I just wanted to find out what you were into because you were always so secretive.” Feeling Bucky tense under his arm Tony quickly added, “and I totally get that now, half the reason I never let you into my shop was so that you didn’t find out I’m a wizard, but you’re a wizard too and you probably had the same reasons for not telling me what you did in your spare time.” Tony stopped rambling and just hoped that it was enough to convince Bucky he really had no malicious intent when he broke in.

Bucky didn’t say anything for a good minute before he spoke again. “What’s the other half?”

“Huh?” Tony had lost his train of thought completely.

Bucky sat up to look at Tony, their sides still firmly pressed together, like he really didn’t want to lose the closeness. “The other half of the reason why you never showed me your shop.”

“Oh, uh. Like health and safety regulations for one… though that’s mostly a muggle excuse. I take care of any issues with a flick of my wand obviously, but mostly because it’s a mess and it doesn’t exactly look like a muggle bakery. And you’d give Dum-E a heart attack, though he technically doesn’t even have a heart.”

Bucky nodded thoughtfully, then a small grin spread on his lips. “There’s no reason you can’t show it to me now, is there?”

Tony lit up, a wide smile on his face. “No, I guess not. I’d love to show you around. If you want.”

“Of course I want.” Bucky leaned his head back on Tony’s shoulder but not before a puzzled look crossed his face. “Don’t you call your mixer Dummy?”

“He’s more like a personal assistant but he does mix and knead most things.”

Bucky laughed into his shoulder. “Oh my god, and to think I’ve missed out on that. So the talk about building your own machines for baking and things?”

“Magical gadgets really. I take the engineering side of muggle machines and invent spells to automate and improve them. And, well, some gained an independent personality.” Tony shrugged with the shoulder Bucky wasn’t leaning on. “Been doing that since I could hold a wand, my mom was a half-blood and she kept a lot of things from when she grew up with a muggle parent. She liked to bake and cook without magic. I just like mixing magic with machines, got me into a lot of trouble in the Academy.”

Bucky had turned awfully still while Tony talked

“Something wrong?” Tony asked, suddenly worried that his ramble had spooked the other man.

But Bucky shook his head and slowly sat up, this time putting some distance between them and Tony instantly missed the closeness.

“I think I have to show you something.” Bucky wasn’t looking at him, instead, he looked at where he was worrying a loose thread at the edge of the couch cushion.

Tony tilted his head in confusion. “Okay?”

Bucky reached for his wand that was lying on the couch table and nervously rolled it between his fingers as if he wasn’t certain he should use it.

With a deep breath, he tightened his grip and pointed the wand to his left wrist. He mumbled a spell and suddenly his skin started to change. He guided the tip of his wand up his forearm, over his elbow and up to his upper arm until he reached his shoulder. The change followed the movement of his want, the skin rippling away like fabric being pulled from a table.

What was revealed made Tony gasp.

What had previously only been a very elaborate tattoo had suddenly turned real. Bucky’s arm was made completely out of metal. Brass and copper rods interlocking with cogs of various sizes with brass plating covering certain parts but leaving most of the mechanism out in the open for Tony to marvel at. It was beautiful in its complexity. However, on second glance it became obvious how much wear and tear the arm had seen, the metal was dull and some cogs were so worn down it was a miracle they were still holding onto each other. Nevertheless, it was a beauty in Tony’s eyes and as his gaze traveled up Bucky’s arm he soaked in every detail.

That was until his eyes landed on Bucky’s shoulder and the mass of scars that were barely covered by the tank top he was wearing. The metal arm was grafted onto his body in the most horrific way imaginable and Tony hoped instantly that there was at least some pain relieving enchantment on this thing because that had to hurt like hell.

“Wow,” Tony finally managed to say. He looked up to see Bucky watching him with a carefully guarded expression. “May I?” He held out his hands, telegraphing what he wanted to do. Just because Bucky showed him the arm, didn’t mean he wanted to be touched.

Bucky held out his arm as an answer and the gears and rods shifted with the movement. He turned his palm up and Tony’s eyebrows shot up in surprise as he saw the inside of his forearm. There was a long recess running from the wrist to his elbow about half an inch wide and suddenly what he had seen earlier this night made perfect sense.

This is where Bucky kept his wand!

Safely hidden by the concealment spell on his arm and always in reach. It was genius.

Tony slowly took Bucky’s metal hand in his and started to examine it more closely. He ran his fingers lightly over the metal, tracing where the one mechanism started and ended and how each gear fit into a bigger whole to make up a human hand.

“This is amazing,” Tony finally said and he made sure to make his admiration audible in his voice. Bucky had been awfully silent and tense as Tony had turned his hand this way and that way to look at it from every angle but he had not pulled back or objected. “Can I ask where you got this? This is not something I’ve ever seen before.”

Bucky looked away and slowly pulled his metal hand back, cupping it with his own flesh hand. He closed his eyes and took several deep breaths before he spoke. “I’m sorry, Tony, maybe some other time.”

Tony nodded. “Thank you for showing me, Bucky.” He was sincere, he would love to examine the arm some more but Bucky’s comfort was more important to him and he already felt honored that Bucky even showed him. He would have never guessed Bucky had an artificial arm from the way he could move it. There had to be some very advanced spells on it for it to be able to do that.

“Actually…,” Bucky said slowly, “I was hoping you could help me with it.”

Tony’s eyes went huge. “Are you serious?”

Bucky nodded a little hesitantly. “You don’t have to obviously, but I thought with your engineering background and, you know, being a wizard…” He shook his head and turned away. “Never mind, it was just a silly thought.” He pointed his wand at his left wrist and mumbled the concealment spell but Tony quickly covered Bucky’s hand with his own and stopped him from casting it.

“I’d love to, Bucky. I’d be happy to help you with it. Whatever you need me to do.” Tony couldn’t believe his luck. How could a night that had started with him being knocked unconscious turn out so amazing?

Before Tony could react, Bucky had closed the distance between them again and pulled Tony into a bone-crushing hug. He buried his face in the crook of Tony’s neck mumbling ‘thank you’ over and over again. Tony was only too happy to return the embrace and wrap his arms around the other man’s back, smiling widely.


End file.
